Amnesty - What The President Can And Can't Get Away With

 

President Obama has announced that he intends to halt deportations by executive order for an estimated 5 million illegal migrants in America. Given our family unification policies, you can probably triple that number in real life.

The president had dinner with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the leaders of the congressional Asian, Black and Hispanic caucuses to discuss his plans which he will anounce publicly tomorrow. No Republicans, of course, were invited.

Off topic: Don't be surprised if the Ferguson verdict is announced tommorrow as well, to distract the public.

He is doing this  now, before December 12th when the new budget measure will need to be passed with the idea of deliberately antagonizing Republicans in hopes they will shut down the government. There's absolutely no better way to poison the well and torpedo any hopes of cooperation between congress and the White House than this juvenile  nonsense.The American people are decisively  against it, even  many members of his own party, which is why he delayed this until after the midterms.

Reportedly, the illegal migrants this president is going to free from any deportations will be exempt from using ObamaCare.  That, of course is another flat out, deliberate lie. The first illegal migrant who takes this to court will win easily because legally  they are eligible for all public benefits, including welfare.

Cooperation and compromise is not is his vocabulary, and this tantrum over the repudiation of his policies by the electorate is just the start.

This sort of action by executive diktat is bad policy, sets a horrendous precedent, and makes absolutely no sense in terms of governing the country  in partnership with congress. It is a cynical and hateful politicalploy at the expense of the American  people.

That said, can he get away with it? It all depends on what you mean.

The latest fairy tale  the Professional left is putting out there is that former Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush did the same thing. That isn't true, and explaining why that's so illustrates how uniquely awful what President Obama has planned  actually is.

President Ronald Reagan's amnesty for illegal aliens involved consulting and negotiating with congress, notably Democrat Senator  Ted Kennedy. Reagan foolishly agreed to it because he trusted Kennedy's word that other portions of the legislation that called for border enforcement would be honored. Of course, they never were.

In 1987, the Reagan administration took executive action to halt  deportations for 200,000 Nicaraguans whom had fled from the Sandinistas. This was also done with the cooperation and input of congress in an obvious political asylum situation.

The same thing is true of President Bush '41's 1990 halt of deportations of Chinese students during the Tian An Min Square protests and his 1991 freeze on  Kuwaitis being deported to their home country after the Iraqi invasion. Congress was in the loop in both cases from day one. And additionally, Bush's halt of deportations in both these cases was intended to be temporary. The relatively small number of people this affected, mostly students, were almost all  repatriated back to their home countries once the political situation changed.

What President Obama is planning, aside from being done without any attempt to involve congress involves huge numbers compared to any of the actions by Bush or Reagan. And it is intended to be permanent.

What this president is planning is known legally as 'prosecutorial discretion,'  and yes, it is entirely legal and has been recognized by the Supreme Court on a number of occasions. So President Obama can legally say that he is exempting 5 million illegal migrants from deportation.In fact, this is pretty much a formal declaration of wht he and his administration have been doing anyway for years. It's ridiculously easy to see where this differs from what Presidents Reagan and Bush did, not to mention the numbers involved.

Here's what the president can't do. While he can exempt people from deportation, he has no authority whatsoever to give them green cards, social security cards or a 'path to citizenship.'  They still maintain their status as illegal migrants, but are simply not subject to prosecution and deportation as long as President Obama is in office.

They cannot import family members, they cannot work legally ( although this will likely be winked at in most states where illegal migrants live), and they cannot vote legally. That's the law, and that's what the Constitution says. That's why Reagan's amnesty for illegal aliens needed to be legislated, while his executive action to halt  deportations for Nicaraguans did not, although in that case Reagan sought and obtained the cooperation and input of congress.

So, what can Congress do? 

They can, of course, shut down the government which is exactly what President Obama is hoping. That's one way to do things, but it might be more effective to operate selectively and use the power of the purse. For instance, congress has the authority (and the numbers, come January) to cut off funds for the president's $3 billion global warming slush fund. They can avoid funding anything concerned with this planned amnesty, and they can reverse it in January of 2017 and start   deporting these same people again if they wish provided the Republican either take the White House and/or garner a veto proof majority, which might easily happen given how unpopular this is. In fact, because this will ignite fury in most Americans, there may even be enough Democrats interested in saving their own hides to join with Republicans in quashing this. The GOP can even campaign on reversing this in 2016 if they like.

By the way, the latest fairy tale you're being told is that this can't be defunded because it operates out of fees rather than congressional appropriations. It is a real mark of how stupid our elites think the peasants are that they would even try this one. 

No government department is in business for themselves. Any and all monies they collect are the property of the United States government and the Constitution clearly gives congress the power to decide what to do with it. Your local cops may collect revenue for your city from parking fees and speeding tickets, and your building and safety department may collect inspection fees, but the money doesn't belong to them. Your city or town council, the legislative branch decides who gets what and how much. The Federal government works exactly the same way.Congress can withhold every dime from the president's new program.

Congress can also  refuse to confirm any of President Obama's nominees, especially judges. The Democrats, after all, did that to a lot of George W. Bush's nominees for no good reason once they took over in 2007. The GOP  can even say, truthfully,  that since President Obama showed blatantly that he had no intention of cooperating with congress, they're simply returning the favor. They can submit common sense legislation that forces him to use his veto pen and shows whom the real obstructionists in congress are. They can tie his hands at every turn, and honestly say that until he reverses himself, that's simply how things are going to be. This can apply to ObamaCare as well, since the president has said he will never sign any legislation repealing or changing it in any way.

Congress can even halt the president's discretionary funds. No more fundraisers on the taxpayer's dime, no more taxpayer funded lavish parties or vacations, no more greens fees for those golf games he loves so much and major limitations to the White House staff for him and the First Lady. Perhaps Mooch-elle can make the president one of her famous lunches from time to time. Or he can foot the bill for a cook if he wants one.And his groceries.

 

And of course, the ultimate response is for both houses of congress to forget about silly things like lawsuits and  hire a special prosecutor to investigate a number of things this president has been involved in that are flagrantly illegal,with the idea of bringing articles of impeachment to the House for a vote.

That's where this is ultimately going anyway.